Pachimon Playing Cards
Quirky Pachimon playing cards from 1970s Japan, featuring unique monsters and aliens, given away with Kewpie mayonnaise.
Japan has always been the source of all things weird and wonderful and the Pachimon playing cards are a fine example of this. In the early 1970s, the Kewpie Corporation – manufacturers of Kewpie mayonnaise – issued trading cards of various monsters/aliens to be given away with mayonnaise. With creatures looking like a cross between Godzilla, Ultraman and God knows what else, these Pachimon (not to be confused with Pokemon) cards are a feast for the eyes. Speaking of feast, how many jars of mayonnaise would you have had to buy to get a complete set?
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By Simon Wintle
Member since February 01, 1996
Founder and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.
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